


The Magnus Effect

by Everlarked



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: First Meet, M/M, Magnus and Alec meet in the normal world, Malec AU, on a plane, there's no magic it's just them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 07:05:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10871595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Everlarked/pseuds/Everlarked
Summary: It's Alec's first time on a plane and he's nervous about that. It's Spring Break and he's off to visit his best friend in Pasadena. On the plane Alec meets a beautiful stranger who helps him settle his nerves.You know, it's like, you have this plan for your life... right? And you know what you need to do and what your responsibilities are. And you think, you know, "If you follow the rules, everything's gonna be fine." Then somebody comes along, and pushes you off that path...





	The Magnus Effect

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns these characters.  
> And an extra thank you goes to papofglencoe and ealamusings for inspiring me to write AU! Hope you all enjoy this. It's written for Malecweek 2017, May 10: Non-supernatural AU

Alec felt a little nervous. It was his first time flying on a plane. His whole childhood he’d never flown anywhere. He’d grown up in the Bronx, and his parents weren’t rich enough for expensive flights to foreign places.

Alec had worked the whole summer and throughout his first semester of college to save enough money to visit his best friend, Jace, during Spring Break. Jace had gone off to study at Caltech, a university at the other side of the country after graduation, while Alec stayed in New York. He studied literature at Columbia. He was a baseball player and he’d gotten into the Ivy League university on a sports scholarship. Measuring in at six feet, his long legs and cat-like swiftness were further augmented by his skills as a pitcher. Spinning the ball, causing it to curve into any direction he’d want it to.

It’s called the Magnus Effect. The Magnus Effect causes a spinning ball to curve away from its principal flight path. Alec had perfected his pitches, using this technique, making it almost impossible for the batter to hit any ball he pitched. He’d gotten the scholarship because of it.

His sport of preference was archery, though. But there was no scholarship for that. Jace and he had done archery together. He outshone Jace on it. It was practically the only thing he was better at than Jace . Jace was smarter, faster, better at getting girls, and beautiful besides.

Alec didn’t care about the getting girls part. He’d known for a long time now that girls didn’t interest him. He was sixteen when he realized it was Jace who got his heart beating faster every time he entered the room. To have a crush on your best friend who’s straight. That was a tough break. On top of it, no one knew he was gay, except for his sister Isabelle. He was raised a good Catholic and in the Bronx being gay wasn’t accepted. Not even in 2017. At least not around the block where his parents lived.

He’d lived in the dorms now, and Columbia was different than the Bronx. But still, a gay baseball player, it didn’t earn him any points. He knew that. So he lived a closeted life. It was okay, really. He’d only ever felt attracted to Jace, and, with him living at the other side of the country, it was easier for Alec somehow.

He was looking forward to seeing him, though. The downside, however, was that Jace had a girlfriend. A real girlfriend. He’d always gone from girl to girl, never staying long with any of them. He was never really in love. But with this girl it was different. Alec could tell. Everything about him changed as soon as he started talking about Clary.

And now Alec was on his way there. To meet her. Dreading it a bit and feeling nervous about this flight. A cheerful stewardess greeted him  upon entering the plane and pointed him toward his seat. 22B. It was in the middle of a row of three seats. Both 22A and 22C were still empty. Alec was early, not wanting to miss his flight. He just found out customs on a domestic flight didn’t take half as long as the website had told him.

He took a book out of his handbag before he stuffed it in the overhead compartment. Shakespeare’s _Romeo and Juliet._ He was a sucker for romantic love stories, and he had to write a paper on this one in the coming semester. Working a little ahead was no punishment if it meant reading _Romeo and Juliet_ again.

He wasn’t even done with the first page when a voice sounded on his left. “Excuse me?”

He looked up from his book and his breath caught.

A tall boy, about 20 years old, stood in the pathway and looked at him. He was Asian, with a deep golden brown skin and black hair standing up in spikes. His eyes were a beautiful green gold. Truth be told, everything was beautiful about him. Alec couldn’t do anything but stare. And the boy stared back.

“Uhm,” Alec stammered, “Yes?”

“I.. uh, my seat is 22A,” the boy said and then he flashed a smile, showing his perfect white teeth.

“Oh yes, of course.” Alec moved his long legs so the boy could pass him by. But when he did he stumbled over Alec’s foot and halfway fell into his chair. Alec reached out a hand to catch  and steady him.

“I’m sorry,” the boy said, but he was laughing. He went to sit down and turned toward Alec.

“I’m Magnus,” he said as he extended a hand.

Alec took it and smiled at him. Magnus, go figure, he thought, what’s in a name?

“Alec.”

“Nice to meet you!” Magnus said.

“You, too.”

Magnus looked down on the book in Alec’s lap. “I see you’re reading _Romeo and Juliet_?”

“Yes. It’s for a course. I study English Literature at Columbia University.”

“You do!? That’s great. Gosh, I’d love to study at Columbia. I go to NYU.” Magnus opened his black jacket to show Alec an NYU t-shirt underneath.

“What do you study at NYU?” Alec asked.

“Ancient History,” Magnus said, “I’m an undergraduate in Late Antiquities and Early Middle Ages.”

“Wow,” Alec said, impressed. “That sounds so interesting.”

“It’s really boring though,” Magnus laughed.

Alec was intrigued. Magnus’s laughter was infectious. His smile lit up his entire face. Alec couldn’t get over the fact that the boy sitting next to him was incredibly beautiful.

Magnus tilted his head a little as he regarded him. “How old are you?”

“I’m eighteen. And you?”

“Just turned twenty-one. Finally allowed to drink. I’m going to order a glass of champagne to celebrate it. You’ll join me?”

Alec laughed. “I’m eighteen,” he repeated.

“Oh, who cares!” Magnus said, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture.

He was flamboyant. He had a good sense of fashion, too, unlike Alec himself. He wore tight fitting designer pants and that black jacket fitted him perfectly. Alec looked down on his old pair of boring jeans and a sweater with holes in it. Fashion never interested him much. But today he wished he’d at least worn something that wasn’t almost falling apart from old age.

“Okay,” Alec said, a bit uncertain. “But won’t they check my age, though?”

“Of course not. You’ve never been on a plane before?” Magnus asked.

“I haven’t.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s no biggy. It sets off, it flies through the air, eighty thousand feet above the ground, and after a few hours it’ll land again and we’ll be in LA!”

“That’s good to know,” Alec said. “Eighty thousand feet, though, are you for real?”

“No! I’m just messing with you.” Magnus laughed again. Alec felt a curious spark light up inside of him at the sound of it.

“It’s about 35,000 feet,” Magnus explained. “And I’ll just order a bottle of champagne with two glasses and hand you one after the stewardess leaves. You won’t let me drink alone, now, would you?”

“No. I’ll join you,” Alec hastened to reassure him. Somehow it felt important to reassure him. He didn’t know why. It was kind of strange, new, and exhilarating, the effect this guy was having on him.

Magnus grabbed around in the bag he was holding and took out his cell phone and a pair of earphones. “You like music?” he asked as he handed the right one to Alec.

“Who doesn’t like music?” Alec asked.

“I don’t know. Deaf people?” Magnus clasped a hand on his mouth. “Sorry, that was rude!”

Alec smiled. This guy was really something. He took the earphone and put it in. “What are we listening to?”

“What do you want to hear? I have everything. Rap, blues, country. Do you want cheesy love songs? Des’rees ‘Kissing you’ goes well with _Romeo and Juliet_ over here.”

“Why is that?”

“What the fuck, you don’t know? Haven’t you seen the movie?” Magnus sounded incredulous

“Which movie?” Alec felt really stupid, but he had no idea what Magnus was talking about.

“ _Romeo and Juliet_ ,” of course. The Baz Luhrmann version. With Leo dickhead Dicaprio and Claire Danes.”

“Isn’t that movie super old?”

“So what? Casablanca is old, too. But it never gets old.” Magnus lifted his fingers to make air quote signs with the second ‘old’ while he beamed at him. “Here’s looking at you, kid!”

It was true, Alec had to give him that. Casablanca was one of the best movies he’d ever seen. He could quote from it. He was going to, now. Not wanting to seem totally dim-witted in front of this boy who seemed to know everything.

“It doesn’t take much to see the problems of three little people…” he said.

“Don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world,” Magnus finished the line.

“Now, now…” Alec added, knowing Magnus would finish this line, too.

“Here’s looking at you, kid.” He didn’t disappoint.

“It’s an amazing line in an amazing movie,” Alec said.

“At that!” Magnus started browsing through his play list. “Des’ree it is, to get you in the mood for this book!”

The music started playing just as the stewardess started to talk.

“Welcome on flight 213 to Los Angeles…” The rest of her words got lost as Magnus turned up the volume.

“Shouldn’t we listen to what she has to say?” Alec asked.

“Oh no, it’s always the same old story. Here are the life vests and here is your oxygen mask, and the emergency exits are at the front and the back and the sides. Blah, blah, blah.”

Magnus laughed again and Alec caught himself staring at the other boy. He was intrigued, captivated, really. There was something so vibrant about him. It was as if he shone from the inside out. He placed a hand casually on Alec’s knee for a second and squeezed him lightly.

“Don’t worry about flying. You’ll be perfectly fine,” he said, reassuringly.

How did he know I was worried, Alec wondered. Did it show on his face so clearly? Apparently it did.

The plane started moving and Alec startled. Magnus winked at him and said he was going to order the champagne as soon as possible. “It’ll calm you down. Now, listen to Des’ree! ‘I’m kissing you, whoohoo.’”

The plane ascended into the air, on its way to 35,000 feet. Alec looked past Magnus’s shoulder out of the window to see New York slowly disappear. Magnus followed his gaze. “Bye, bye, New York!”

They listened to Des’ree and after the song ended Magnus played him some rap. “I love rap. There’s so much energy in it. Jay-Z, N.W.A, Nas. It’s all good.”

Alec knew rap. It was all he heard in the Bronx.

“I like Nas the best,” he said.

“Great! Illmatic here we go!” Magnus replied. He waved a hand in the air and a stewardess came over.

“I’m in need of champagne,” Magnus told her. “It’s time to celebrate.”

“Of course, sir,” the stewardess said, nodding her head at him. Then she turned to look at Alec. “And can I get you anything?”

Alec shook his head, the stewardess smiled and turned to go. “Man, she’s hot,” Magnus said.

Alec raised his eyebrows at him and scrunched up his nose. “Not my type,” he said.

“What’s your type?” Magnus asked.

“What’s yours?” Alec shot back, not really ready to share his sexual preferences with a random stranger.

“I like them any way they come. Boy, girl, transgender, a-sexual, I really don’t care. I appreciate beauty as I see it.”

He looked into Alec’s eyes then, squarely. And Alec stared back, a flutter of apprehension in his stomach. Magnus’s eyes were fascinating, so rare a color. Alec was caught in their gaze. He opened his mouth to say something but couldn’t think of anything. Instead he bit his lip, his teeth grazing over the delicate skin.

He didn’t know if it was intentional, but Magnus copied his movement, biting his lip and then his tongue flicked out, for only a moment, to lick his bottom lip.

Alec felt a blush creep up his cheeks at the sight of it and turned away from Magnus, looking down on the book in his lap. There was silence for a little while.

The stewardess returned and gave Magnus a bottle of champagne with a glass. “I need a second glass,” Magnus told her. She was hauling a pushcart behind her, and she took another glass from there to hand it over to Magnus.

“See,” Magnus said to Alec after she continued her route through the small pathway. “No biggy!”

He popped open the bottle of champagne and filled both glasses, handing one to Alec. “Cheers!”

“Cheers!” Alec said. “To spending Spring Break in LA.”

“Yes!” Magnus beamed at him and then launched into a story of how he was going to LA to meet up with friends and party big time.

Alec, in his turn, told Magnus about Jace and about meeting Jace’s girlfriend. From there their conversation moved to art and then back to books and movies and music.

It was so easy to talk to this boy, Alec thought. The time passed by quickly. He checked his watch and realized they were already three hours into the flight. Only about fifteen minutes left. He felt amazed at the feeling of thorough disappointment. He didn’t want his time together with Magnus to end.

Magnus stopped talking mid-sentence and tilted his head to look at him. “What is it?” he asked.

“I just realized we’re about to land, soon,” Alec said. “I’m actually sorry about that. Knowing this flight is coming to its end.”

He didn’t know where he found the courage, but he did pride himself in being honest and straightforward.

Magnus smiled a brilliant smile at him. “You are?” he asked. “You know what? You’re going to Pasadena, right? To the Caltech dorms?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll join you. Extend this a little longer.”

“You would? Why?” Alec frowned a little, surprised at Magnus’s suggestion.

“Because,” Magnus shrugged, his eyes were smiling as he leaned in a little, closing the distance between them. “I’m enjoying myself immensely with you.”

Alec’s breath caught in his throat as he stared into Magnus’s eyes once more. They were so close now. He caught the little hazel specks in them, and he saw his own reflection in Magnus’s pupils.

Magnus reached out his hand and touched Alec’s cheek, a thumb rubbing gently over his cheekbone. Alec startled at the touch at first, but then leaned into it, almost involuntarily.

“Okay,” he said, his voice sounding low and rough.

“Okay!” Magnus said as he let go of him and smiled a little lopsided grin, raising his eyebrows. “Great!”

More than great, Alec thought.

This flight had turned out to be more than great. He found himself wanting to spend more time with Magnus. To get to know him better. He wanted Magnus’s hand back at his cheek, too. And maybe more? He thought back at that moment when Magnus had bit his lip, and he wondered how it would feel if he would do that. Bite that pink, full lower lip. Nibble at it a little. The thought made the blood rush up to his face.

He wondered what was happening to him. This boy. His eyes, his touch. He left him wanting more.

With amazement he realized he’d rather spend this Spring Break with Magnus than with Jace and his girlfriend. He really wanted that.

“So?” he asked, “Once we’re in Pasadena, what will we do next?”

“Who knows?” Magnus said, mysteriously. “We’ll go wherever the mood takes us. Drink some more, and laugh some more. How does that sound?”

“That sounds really great,” Alec said. And then, as an afterthought, he added, “I like you.”

Magnus’s face lit up. “Me, too. You are very unexpected.”

“How come?” Alec asked, suddenly worried he’d said too much.

“Because you’re so straightforward. You wear your heart on your sleeve, don’t you? I really like that about you.”

“Would you like to go out with me?” Alec asked.

“See! Straightforward. That’s exactly what I mean.” Magnus smiled widely at him. “I’d love to go out with you. I think you and I are going to have a great time in Pasadena!”

“Me, too,” Alec said, all the dread and all the nerves he felt at the beginning of this flight were forgotten.

Instead there was something completely new that held his attention now.

This beautiful boy with his beautiful eyes.

He made Alec’s life curve away from its principal flight path.

It’s called the Magnus Effect.


End file.
